Tomorrow I fly back to England for a couple of weeks, so I’ve been busy getting ready and packing.

We spent some of yesterday trying to sort out my vegetable patch as Chris may not be able to do the watering for me whilst I am away because of his foot.   Holes have appeared in the “voile” and as we lifted it off we found quite a few [tag-tec]grasshoppers[/tag-tec] underneath.  Had they eaten their way in, or out I wondered.  Luckily not too much damage to my vegetables had occurred but we covered it up again with a new cover and used the older one to cover my lettuce, which are now too big for their improvised plastic fruit containers.  We then laid the hose pipe, which feeds from the canal, alongside the patch and drilled holes along its length.  This works well as a continuous source of watering and will also deter the hoppers who hate the wet.  Not that I need to worry this evening as we have a heavy rainstorm with thunder and lightning.  This comes after a week of lovely weather.  Perhaps it’s come down from England where it’s been torrential over the weekend and delayed the start of Wimbledon this afternoon.